Trump launches stablecoin 💲

Hi! In today’s edition:

• 💲 Trump’s DeFi firm to launch stablecoin

• 🧑‍💻 Abracadabra! The $$$ vanishes!

• 💵 Ripple to drop appeal, pay $50M fine

• 🏦 BlackRock rolls out tokenized fund on Solana

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Trump-Backed World Liberty Financial to Launch Stablecoin

World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture that names U.S. President Donald Trump as its “chief crypto advocate,” his youngest son, Barron Trump, as a “DeFi visionary,” and two other sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., as “Web3 ambassadors,” on Tuesday announced plans to launch a stablecoin named USD1. 

The token will be pegged to the U.S. dollar and fully backed by short-term U.S. government treasuries, dollar deposits, and other cash equivalents, according to the Trump vehicle’s announcement.

It aims to maintain a 1:1 value with the greenback and will initially be available on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, with plans to expand to other blockchain networks.

“USD1 provides what algorithmic and anonymous crypto projects cannot — access to the power of DeFi underpinned by the credibility and safeguards of the most respected names in traditional finance,” World Liberty Financial co-founder Zach Witkoff said.

The firm has raised $550 million from token sales to support its broader DeFi ambitions.

Abracadabra Falls Prey to $13M Hack

A hacker exploited a vulnerability in the smart contracts of DeFi protocol Abracadabra on Monday, stealing 6,260 ETH valued at around $13 million from its liquidity pools.

The attack targeted Abracadabra lending mechanisms known as "cauldrons," which rely on GMX liquidity pools for on-chain borrowing and lending.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield flagged the exploit, which was later confirmed by Abracadabra on X. 

“While having multiple systems in place, the exploit was caught only after the attacker executed several transactions,” the team said, noting that the protocol had deactivated borrowing functionality for all cauldrons after being alerted by Web3 security firm zeroShadow.

“To the hacker, we are happy to entertain negotiations for a bug bounty of 20% of the total,” they said.

The exploit appears to have involved manipulating the liquidation process of Abracadabra's cauldrons in the integration of GMX V2's GM pools. The attacker used a DeFi-specific mechanism called a flash loan that allows users to borrow funds without collateral and repay them within the same transaction block.

The hacker has already bridged the stolen funds from Arbitrum to Ethereum. 

Ripple to Drop SEC Cross-Appeal, Pay $50M of $125M Fine

XRP issuer Ripple has agreed to drop its cross-appeal against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, marking a significant step toward the resolution of the two sides’ long legal battle.

Ripple’s chief legal officer, Stuart Alderney, gave an update on the decision on X, which came after the SEC's recent unconditional withdrawal of its own appeal. 

Ripple has also agreed to pay $50 million of the original $125 million fine imposed in August 2022. The remaining $75 million, held in an interest-bearing escrow account, will be returned to Ripple.

The resolution is now awaiting official approval, including a commission vote, the finalization of legal documents, and adherence to typical court procedures. 

BlackRock Expands Tokenized Fund BUIDL to Solana

BlackRock has expanded its BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) to the Solana blockchain, making Solana the seventh blockchain network to support the tokenized money market fund.

The expansion comes as BUIDL's assets under management have surged past the $1.7 billion mark. 

The fund was launched in March last year in partnership with tokenization platform Securitize, and had amassed $500 million of assets within just four months. It now dominates the tokenized U.S. Treasuries market, with a 34% market share.

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo called the expansion to  Solana a "natural next step" as the market for real-world assets and tokenized treasuries gains momentum.

Mantle is building the largest sustainable hub for on-chain finance. Launching three new core innovation pillars: Enhanced Index Fund, Mantle Banking and MantleX. 

• ✒️ North Carolina lawmakers this week proposed bills that could allow up to 5-10% of state retirement and public funds to be invested in digital assets such as Bitcoin, with new authorities overseeing the risk and custody of the investments.

• 🤝 The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, under new leadership, will host four public crypto roundtables between April and June on trading, custody, tokenization, and DeFi as part of a broader effort by its crypto task force to create a workable regulatory framework.

• 🐊 Crypto influencer Ben Armstrong, a.k.a. “BitBoy,” was arrested in Florida on Tuesday after revealing days earlier that a warrant had been issued for him over emails sent to a Georgia judge while acting as his own attorney.

• 🇺🇸 The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation plans to eliminate "reputational risk" from its bank supervision practices and develop a new policy framework to allow banks to engage with digital assets.

• 🕵️ The SEC closed its investigation of Web3 gaming platform Immutable on Tuesday without taking action, clearing the company of wrongdoing related to its IMX token offering.

• 💱 Cboe BZX Exchange on Tuesday filed with the SEC to list a Fidelity-backed Solana ETF, marking the latest in a wave of efforts by major asset managers to launch spot crypto ETFs amid growing regulatory openness under the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

• 🪨 BlackRock launched its first Bitcoin exchange-traded product in Europe on Tuesday, expanding its iShares crypto offerings to exchanges in Germany, France, and the Netherlands.

• 🔥 Crypto.com is under fire after reissuing 70 billion previously burned Cronos tokens — 70% of the total supply — sparking a backlash over transparency, decentralization, and governance manipulation concerns.

• Celo has officially transitioned from a standalone layer 1 blockchain to an Ethereum layer 2 network using Optimism's OP Stack, aiming to enhance scalability, interoperability, and security while retaining fast, low-cost transactions.

• 💲 Custodia Bank and Vantage Bank on Tuesday launched America’s first bank-issued stablecoin, named Avit, on the Ethereum blockchain, marking a regulatory breakthrough by tokenizing real U.S. dollar demand deposits on a permissionless network.

• 💰 Tech and entertainment firm Infinite Reality on Tuesday entered into an agreement to acquire reinvented peer-to-peer sharing platform Napster for $207 million, with plans to transform it into a music-focused metaverse platform featuring virtual concerts, social listening parties, and AI-powered tools for artists.

• 👾 GameStop has announced plans to invest some of its $4.77 billion cash reserves in Bitcoin and stablecoins, following board approval and mirroring the crypto strategy of companies such as Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy).

• ⚡ Crusoe Energy is selling its Bitcoin mining business to bitcoin, power and financial services firm NYDIG to focus on expanding its AI infrastructure, shifting away from crypto as AI becomes its main revenue driver.

1. Cointelegraph: Timeline: How Trump tariffs dragged Bitcoin below $80K

2. The Block: Sonic Labs co-founder Andre Cronje stirs memories of TerraUSD’s crash with new algo stablecoin

3. Fortune: Incoming SEC chair Paul Atkins owns up to $6 million in crypto-related assets — though no Bitcoin